Paradise Whydah - which wouldn't show those yellowish brown underparts.Pin-tailed Whydah - of which I'd expect the bill to be even redder and the belly to be whiter.Shaft-tailed Whydah - of which the facial patterns are not nearly as clear as on this bird.Dusky Indigobird - of which the underparts would not be yellow-brown.Purple Indigobird - of which the underparts would not be yellow-brown.Village Indigobird - The more I think about it the more confident I am that this is the right one.

"Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel." -Homer Simpson

I went birding with the Cape Bird Club this morning at Zandvlei near Muizenberg. We saw this nondescript female something and were discussing it. Then someone saw this black chapie with a red bill. I thought it was a seriously lost RB buffalo weaver, but it was not big enough. Then I thought, indigobird, and it looked like the village indigobird, but that is way out of range. The nondescript female matched the one in the book and so did he

The nearest other I have seen to this were in Addo, between the main camp and the game gate.

Whatever (according to BB): "You are correct but I don't want to admit it".

Any ideas on this one? (Awful pic I know, heavily cropped)We saw it at Mooiplaas in June ; it stayed in this narrow channel for quite a while investigating foodstuff, always with its back to us, then suddenly disappeared into the grass.